How far away are the stars? Science answers!

It is possible to observe the sky full of stars at night, especially if you are outside of major cities where there is less artificial lighting and pollution, the sky appears even brighter. Although some of these stars appear to be close to Earth, the truth is that they are too far away for humans to reach. on a space rocket journey.

Stellar objects also appear very close to each other, but The average distance between two stars in the Milky Way is approximately 47 trillion kilometers or 5 light-years. Some of these celestial bodies may be billions or even trillions of kilometers away from our planet; So just because they look close doesn’t mean they actually are.

“Never trust the constellations. If you see two stars side by side in the sky, this is a 2D projection. “You don’t know if they’re actually close to each other,” Anna Rosen, an astrophysicist and assistant professor at San Diego State University, said in a message posted to the website. Live Science.

In fact, we still cannot physically reach these stars with current technology, but science has already managed to make good measurements to understand how far away they are. To explain the topic further, TecMundo gathered information from scientists and experts in the field.

How far away are the stars?

The nearest star is approximately 4.24 light-years from Earth. So if we could get there, the journey would take tens of millions of years. Moreover, although the stars appear completely stationary, they move slowly and constantly; If we could look at them more closely, we would observe that the constellations are also slowly changing due to this movement.

Astronomers now understand that most stars develop in close-together star-forming environments. Over time, and with other factors such as the gravitational field of the host galaxy, stars begin to disperse into different regions of star systems..

“Then if you take a photo of a star, if the star is close enough, it will move relative to the background stars, just as your hand moves relative to its surroundings. Knowing the parallax angle at which the star is moving and the size of the Earth’s orbit, you can calculate the distance.” [do nosso planeta] to the star,” explains an article in the encyclopedia Britannica.

Discover the five closest stars to Earth

• Sun – Although we know this star as the Sun, it is also a star and can be considered the closest star to planet Earth. 150 million kilometers away;
• Proxima Centauri – As we mentioned earlier, if we exclude the Sun from the list, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Earth. 4.24 light years away;
• Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B – The duo Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are part of the Alpha Centari system and are sisters of Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C). They are approximately 4.4 light-years away;
• Barnard’s Star – Located in the constellation Serpentarius, Barnard’s Star is a red dwarf and the third closest star to our planet. 4.4 light years away;
• Wolf 359 – Red dwarf star Wolf 359 has high magnetic activity and is one of the lowest-mass stellar objects ever discovered by humanity. It is 7.8 light years away.

Stars outside the Milky Way

Scientists noticed stars are generally no more than 5 light-years away from each other, but this average is not only common in the Milky Way. After different analyzes of data collected by spacecraft, researchers suggest that this is the average separation value between stars in other galaxies..

On the other hand, other stellar objects can leave the galaxy and travel longer than average due to the high speed provided by the black hole. For example, if a star passes very close to a black hole, it will accelerate through a kind of ‘slingshot effect’ and can travel millions of light years away.

“All the stars appear to be fairly stable, but if we could travel over a thousand years we would see the shape of the constellations gradually changing. If a star passes too close to this black hole, it will not be swallowed but will be strongly impacted. “It has accelerated,” European Space Agency (ESA) astronomer Jos de Bruijne told the website . Live Science.

Did you like the content? Stay up to date with more curiosities about stars and astronomy at TecMundo. If you wish, learn how astronomers know the age of planets and stars.